was struck by something Donald Trump said on CNN this [Sunday] morning:

"Until I got involved in this most people didn't know we were defending Japan and Germany."

Of course they didn't, and don't – they're too busy paying their mortgages, raising their children, and living their lives. They don't have the time or inclination to educate themselves in the many ways their government is ripping them off, meddling in concerns that are none of America's business, and otherwise projecting the monumental conceit of the political class overseas.

Direct payments to NATO in fiscal year 2010 were $711.8 million, but this underestimates the real costs by several orders of magnitude. The US deployment of troops to Europe, the continuing expense of basing them in Germany, Spain, Italy, and elsewhere, easily equals that amount – and if we add up all the years we've been NATO's mainstay, the total represents an enormous drain on the American economy. Of course, not everybody pays: some profit from this, notably the big military contractors, who rake in billions. So when Trump says our allies are "ripping us off," he's only half right: the real thieves are the American war profiteers and their political Praetorian Guard in Congress, who make this grand larceny possible.